This essay for the Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980 exhibition places many seemingly disparate stories of Black and Brown artists and activists together. In Los Angeles during this time, experimentations with social and art initiatives were frequent, yet the stories provided here by Tejada have often been concealed. He highlights racial and class injustices that span across the punk-music scene, avant-garde poetry, and activist journalism in the city. He unveils and reconstructs the narratives of racial and social reckoning with poignant depictions of journalist Rubén Salazar, poet Jayne Cortez, museum curator Cecil Ferguson, musician and actor Tito Larriva, and performance artist Ulysses Jenkins, in their commitment to art and political activism.
